Mr. Justin Johnson leads the North Charleston Project Lead the Way pre-engineering program and serves as the adviser for his school’s SeaPerch underwater robotics competition team.

After his students finished 2nd in the SeaPerch competition last year, the team discussed what they could do to come home with the trophy this year.

“They decided they needed their own practice pool right on campus, so they could have plenty of practice time with their robots and work out all the kinks”, said Mr. Johnson.

With the support of school leadership and careful planning, the students successfully designed and built their own training pool just behind the school this semester. The students designed the fence that surrounds the pool and hammered the wood in to place. They even designed a truss system for a roof, but decided not use a pool cover instead. They installed the pool walls and the supporting brackets, and painted the fence North Charleston High School blue.

The project-based learning experience incorporated math, engineering and structural design standards. “The students learned the spacing of each stud in the wall needed to account for the actual width of each two by four”, added Mr. Johnson.

“The students have a ton of pride in this practice space. They will be well prepared for their competition in March, and take away some important life skills from the fence and pool construction project”, said Mr. Johnson.

Watch Mr. Johnson’s pre-engineering students utilizing their new practice space in these videos:

UPDATE:

Channel 4 News will soon run a story on the North Charleston High School SeaPerch Robotics Team!

Over 130 students from throughout Charleston competed in the 2016 SeaPerch Charleston Challenge.

Teams from local high and middle schools designed underwater robots and competed with them in various challenges. Students were also judged on their poster and presentation skills, and an overall composite score determined the winner of the event.